smartphone app from a distance. If enough of these devices are installed throughout a shopping centre or in a retail store in the right configuration, they can track the phone’s location as the owner moves around the building. Where does the shopper engagement come in? If the phone carrier gives the shopping centre operator or retailer permission through a mobile app, then the beacons tracking the shopper can facilitate the sending out of ‘location-relevant’ promotions as he or she moves around. So, if you’re passing by a pharmacy you might get messaged a special offer for vitamin supplements, and then a discount on yoga pants as you go by the athleisure boutique. Other technologies now available and under development can perform a similar function to beacons. For example, ‘smart light bulbs’ in the ceiling don’t even need to identify the phone signal – they can connect with the phone’s camera as soon as the device is switched on. Then watch out customer, here come the marketing messages. The question surrounding these kinds of technologies is – is this really engagement, or is it just another way of blitzing people with unwanted advertising? The early verdict back from the field is that shoppers aren’t thrilled about it and that marketers may need to think again. Specifically, they might need to think about beacon applications that are designed to work for the consumer rather than for the shopping centre or retailer. At an Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition in Chicago earlier this month, a panel discussion on the topic featuring Adam Silverman, an analyst at digital technology consultancy, Forrester Research, and Jeff Douglas, an executive at big box US retailer, Nebraska Furniture Mart, indicated that beacon implementation in individual retail stores hadn’t been a smashing success – except when it was used for purposes other than assaulting customers with marketing collateral. Shopping centre operators had better take this on board, or risk squandering millions on useless technology in the same way that they squandered millions on useless ‘internet strategies’ just before the dotcom bust 15 years ago. Waiting and seeing The biggest mall operators in the US now have a heavy commitment to beacon installation for purposes of mobile marketing in their centres. Beacons are also being trialled in Australia, although they are not yet in widespread use. This is a case of where Australian shopping centre operators will do well to wait and see what happens overseas before they go too hard at this kind of stuff. Being behind the curve is a big advantage sometimes. The technology providers and their allies in shopping centre and retailer marketing departments say that these technologies drive business with ‘relevant messaging’ or ‘proximity marketing’ (both of these terms mean the same thing) that takes the random hit-or-miss out of push marketing and makes the promotions much more attractive and immediate. That is all well and good in theory, but according to Silverman of Forrester Research, customers find the promotions disruptive and unwanted in the context of moving through a retail store. Can shopping centre operators manage these promotions better than individual retailers? They can if shopping centre marketers think about how to deploy them for the genuine benefit of the customer. That means being able to empathise with shoppers and genuinely understand where their pain points are. Then the technology can be used to remove those pain points and make the shopping experience more enjoyable. Beacons and related technologies can be super-useful for helping customers with in-centre navigation. If you’ve ever been completely flummoxed by mall maps, then how good would it be to enter a store name or product name into the shopping centre’s mobile app and get directions there from your current location. An indoor GPS, in other words. Beacons and related technologies can make that happen. In the retail store context, use of beacons and similar technologies just for finding things is likely to be the ‘killer’ application. After all, this is where one of the shopper’s biggest pain points is, particularly in large stores – not being able to find stuff and not being able to find a store employee who can help him/her to find it. Another potentially useful application for beacons in the shopping centre setting is mobile analytics. Aggregating individual customer movements into ‘heat maps’ using beacons or similar technologies might be used by the shopping centre operator to better understand mall traffic patterns and how to better utilise space. By doing so, centre operators could see how many customers went where, which routes they took to get there, where they spent time, places that they just sped by and places they avoided altogether. And of course, this same analytical capability can also be captured within individual stores. Neither of these applications – in-centre navigation and mobile analytics – involves intruding on the customer and disrupting the shopping journey. They can actually help improve the shopping experience, which is what technology should be all about. Access exclusive analysis, locked news and reports with Inside Retail Weekly. Subscribe today and get our premium print publication delivered to your door every week.